I glanced over at the sword. Vic was safe and snug in his black leather scabbard, and I'd leaned him against the dresser within easy reach. The sword's eye was closed, and his mouth was relaxed in a way that meant he was sleeping. No surprise. Vic usual y snoozed whenever Daphne came over to my dorm room.

The sword claimed that al the "bloody girl talk" bored him.

"I can't believe the nerve of Logan," I muttered again and resumed my pacing. Since the room was so big, it took me several seconds to stalk from one side to the other.

Daphne pushed down the screen of her laptop and crossed her arms over her chest. Her pink Hel o Kitty pajamas matched the stickers that decorated her computer case.

"So what are you going to do about it?" the Valkyrie asked.

"Are you going to make a play for Logan and take him away from Savannah? The way he was staring at you outside the coffee shop, I think you could total y do that. He real y does like you, you know. You should have seen the look on his face when he was holding you. It was intense.

Even for a Spartan. I've seen some of them in ful battle-rage mode who didn't look that focused."

"Wel , he's got a funny way of showing it." I flopped down onto the bed. "And I'm not going to take him away from Savannah. I'm not Morgan McDougal . I don't go around stealing other girls' boyfriends."

"Morgan doesn't exactly steal them," Daphne pointed out.

"She just sleeps with them on the sly."

I thought about how sad Morgan had looked, first in the library earlier this week and then again tonight outside the coffee shop. I felt bad talking about the Valkyrie like she was just the school slut and nothing more. She had feelings, too, just like the rest of us did. "Whatever. The point is that I'm not like her, and I don't want to be. Not even for Logan freaking Quinn."

"So what are you going to do?" the Valkyrie asked again, opening her laptop once more.

I stared up at the ceiling. What was I going to do?

Despite everything that had happened tonight, I stil had a crazy, crazy crush on Logan. But nothing was ever going to come of it. For starters, he was dating another girl. Sure, Logan said that he cared about me, but he stil had this big, bad secret he wanted to hide from me, something that just wasn't possible given my Gypsy gift. As soon as I touched him, my psychometry would kick in and show me his secret whether I wanted to see it or not. I didn't even have to kiss him-just holding his hand long enough would do the trick.

Kind of hard to date a guy when you couldn't risk even touching him, especial y when that guy was Logan, who I so badly wanted to touch-in al sorts of ways.

And then there was Preston. Before Logan had interrupted us, we'd been having fun getting to know each other. I liked Preston, and I thought he liked me, too- at least enough to want to hang out with me this weekend. He had asked me to meet him for lunch tomorrow.

Maybe-maybe Preston could be my rebound guy.

Someone to help me get over this stupid, hopeless crush I had on Logan. In fact, Preston would be a perfect rebound guy, since I wouldn't see him after the weekend and the Winter Carnival were over. He'd go back to the New York academy, and I'd go back to Mythos. So why not have a little fun while we were both here together?

I raised myself up on my elbows. "What am I going to do?

I'm going to have lunch with Preston tomorrow like he asked me to and forget Logan even exists." Daphne grinned. "Now you're talking. You'l have to introduce me to Preston. I real y want to see for myself how gorgeous he is."

"You didn't see him tonight? We were sitting right outside the coffee shop."

Daphne shook her head. "Nope, I was too busy dancing with Carson and then keeping this trashy Amazon from getting her hands on him. She was total y making do-me eyes at Carson from across the room, and she tried to horn in on us while we were dancing. Slut. She's going to be sorry she did that, especial y since she kept on even after I told her that Carson was taken."

The Valkyrie hit some more keys on her laptop, her black eyes glittering with anger. Pink sparks of magic shot out of her fingertips, like mini streaks of lightning.

I frowned. "Is that what you're doing? Looking up that other girl online?"

Daphne nodded. "The New York academy has a Web site, just like we do, where students can blog and post photos and stuff.

Which is why you need to introduce me to your mystery guy. I looked, but there are no Pres-tons listed on the site. Apparently, your guy decided not to post his photo and set up his online student profile. Ah, there's the Amazon. Calinda Lopez."

Daphne's fingers picked up speed, and she started muttering under her breath. "Come on, baby. We can crack that pesky firewal ... ."

In addition to being a Valkyrie, Daphne also had some major computer skil s. She was in the Tech Club at Mythos, which was real y just an after-school group for al the budding hackers at the academy. In fact, Daphne had used her skil s to help me break the password on Jasmine Ashton's laptop, back when I'd been investigating Jasmine's fake murder. That was how we'd become friends. Of course, I'd blackmailed Daphne into helping me to start with, but I thought it had al worked out okay in the end.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

Daphne shrugged. "Nothing much. Just erasing al of Calinda's good grades and replacing them with incompletes.

Eventual y, the administrators wil figure out what happened, but I'm making it look like a computer error. Stil , I imagine she'l get some nasty lectures from her profs and parents in the meantime."

I shook my head. "Remind me not to piss you off, because you're a total vindictive bitch when you're angry.

There are supervil ains in my comic books who could learn a thing or two from you."

The Valkyrie stuck out her tongue, then gave me a maniacal grin. "You'd better believe it, Gypsy." Daphne focused on her laptop and went back to her Internet stalking, hacking, and general mayhem. I crawled under the covers and tucked my pil ow underneath my head.

Preston, I thought. Tomorrow, I'd have lunch with Preston, and we'd have a great time together. We'd hang out and laugh and talk and just have fun. I thought about him then, about his blue eyes, his white blond hair, his cute dimples.

But no matter how much I tried to hold on to the image, no matter how hard I concentrated, Preston's face melted into Logan's the second I closed my eyes.

Chapter 12

The next day, Saturday, was the part of the weekend when there was actual y a carnival set up as part of the Winter Carnival.

Go figure.

Daphne yanked off the covers and pul ed me out of bed way, way too early. Literal y, she grabbed my ankle and used her Valkyrie strength to throw me over her shoulder and haul me into the shower. Sometimes, it real y sucked having a best friend who could give the Hulk a run for his money in the weight-lifting department. Especial y at seven in the morning.

I'd barely stepped out of the shower when Daphne threw some clothes at me and barked at me to get dressed-or else.

Apparently, the carnival was her favorite part of the whole weekend, and she didn't want to miss a second of it, not even to get a few more hours of sleep. And she thought I was a freak.

Grumbling, I threw on some clothes, topped with a clean pair of ski pants and a matching jacket, both in a bright silver that Daphne had picked out for me at the shop yesterday. Boots, gloves, and a cute gray toboggan covered with tiny snowflakes completed my outfit. For once, Daphne actual y decided to wear another color besides pink. Her ski suit was a powder blue that made her look like a real ice princess.

We met Carson downstairs in the one of the hotel restaurants.

Apparently, the hotel didn't take breakfast quite as seriously as it did the other meals because there was actual y some normal food set out as part of a massive buffet: tal stacks of buttermilk pancakes drizzled with apricot syrup, thick slabs of Canadian bacon, enormous omelets stuffed with cheese and colorful veggies. Yum. We washed everything down with spiced apple cider that was the perfect blend of sweet and tart. Then, just after nine, one of the chair lifts whisked us up the mountain and let us off at the carnival.

The Winter Carnival had been set up on a wide, level plateau situated between two of the ski slopes, about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. Ring tosses, duck shooting, milk bottle throws, even a couple of polar bear dunk tanks fil ed with ice water. Every kind of carnival game you could imagine was featured in the dozens of wooden booths that had been erected on the plateau for the day's event.

The smal shacks looked like gingerbread houses with their bright, bold colors and crazy, candy-cane stripes.

Glittery signs and streamers announcing the various prizes swooped from the corner of one booth to the next, while neon-colored stuffed animals fought for space on the shelves inside.

Loud, cheery cal iope music tril ed through a portable sound system someone had dragged up the mountain, and heaters blasted away here and there in the snow, to help keep the chil at bay. The merchants from the shops in the alpine vil age had also made the trek up the mountain, setting up separate shacks and bringing their own high-end goods with them-jewelry, watches, designer clothes.

I thought the professors or the resort staff might perform some kind of ritual before the carnival opened. Light a fire, chant some magic mumbo jumbo, and thank the gods for watching over everyone on the mountain. That's what the profs had done a few weeks ago before the homecoming bonfire and dance back at the academy. Truth be told, I'd found it a little weird and creepy. But the kids had already started playing games, and the sounds of bel s, whistles, and more tril ed through the air. No ritual today then.

Good.

But once again, I couldn't escape the statues. A large stone sculpture of Skadi, the Norse goddess of winter, stood in the middle of the carnival area, looking like a twin to the one inside the hotel lobby. Somehow, the goddess looked even fiercer up here on the mountain, in the midst of the snow, and it seemed like the statue radiated cold, despite the heaters tucked next to her feet.

Statues of other gods and goddesses had also been planted in the snow here and there, their stone lips curled up into crazy smiles that matched the excitement of the day. I sighed and looked away from them.

It didn't take long for something else to catch my attention, though-the food. Cotton candy, kettle corn, caramel apples, corn dogs, deep-fried Twinkies. I spotted signs for al those treats, and each one made a grin spread a little wider across my face. For once, the food was actual y normal, and I was totally getting my sugar rush on today. A warm, sweet, delicious aroma fil ed the air, and I breathed in. Were those funnel cakes I smel ed? With powdered sugar and hot cherry sauce oozing off the top?

My stomach rumbled in anticipation, even though we'd just eaten breakfast.

"Isn't it fabulous?" Daphne asked, her eyes glittering like black diamonds in her face. "Where do you think we should go first, Carson?"

The band geek put his arm around the Valkyrie and hugged her to his chest. "I think we should go over to the ring toss, so I can win you a stuffed animal. Or a dagger, whichever you prefer."

Daphne arched her eyebrows and gave him an amused smile.

"Even though I can total y beat you whenever we play any kind of game in gym class?"

Carson blushed a little. "Yeah, wel , I can try. Look how many tickets I bought. Surely, I can win something with them."

He pul ed a wad of red tickets out of the pocket of his black ski pants. You had to buy tickets to play the various carnival games, and the proceeds went to help fund the whole weekend trip. Daphne and Carson had both whipped out their credit cards to get tickets for al the games as soon as we'd stepped off the chair lift. They'd dropped close to five hundred bucks each without batting an eye.

I hadn't bothered buying any tickets, though. I wasn't coordinated enough to play one of the games and actual y win anything. Wel , I might be able to win if there was some kind of archery game, and I channeled my memories of Daphne at her tournaments, just like I did during weapons training. But the Powers That Were at the academy would probably consider that to be cheating.

"Come on," Daphne said, grabbing my hand. "Enough standing around. Let's play some games!"

We wandered around the Winter Carnival for the next two hours, moving from one booth to another. It looked like everyone in the entire Powder complex had turned out for the event, and the whole mountain was crawling with kids, professors, and the resort staff.

I spotted Professor Metis running one of the ring toss games and cheerful y talking to al the students.

Nickamedes stood next to her in the booth, handing out prizes to the winners, a pinched, sour expression on his face. No doubt the librarian was al ergic to fresh air and sunshine.

Sometimes I wondered if Nickamedes was actual y a vampire, as pale and pasty as he was. I'd have to ask Daphne about the librarian, and if, you know, vampires actual y existed in the first place. Despite al the things I'd learned in myth-history class, I was stil a little unclear on al the different types of monsters out there.

Okay, okay, on a lot of things, real y.

Metis and Nickamedes weren't the only professors I saw.

Mr. Llew, my calculus teacher; Mrs. Banba, the economics prof; Coach Lir, the lean, lanky swimming instructor-they were al helping out with the booths and games. Even Mrs.

Raven, the library coffee cart lady was here, manning one of the cotton candy machines.

I had fun watching Daphne and Carson play al the carnival games, but it wasn't long before I noticed there was something a little ... off about the contests. Like at the ring toss, where the kids threw spiked metal chains over the heads of Nemean prowlers instead of using simple rings and metal poles. Or over at the milk bottle toss, where the glass bottles al had grinning black masks painted on them to represent Reaper faces. And especial y at the dunk tank, where the bul s'-eye reminded me of a drawing of Loki that I'd seen in my myth-history book, the one where the evil god's face was al twisted and melted from the snake venom that had dripped onto his handsome features for centuries. The venom continual y spattering onto Loki had been part of his punishment the first time the other gods had locked him away, before he escaped and plunged the world into the Chaos War.